Common CAHSS 2025

Introduction to Common CAHSS by Ryan Martin, Dean, and Jennie Young, Associate Dean, CAHSS. Full group session to orient everyone to the day's activities. 

Take a short break before our breakouts begin.

From Stress to Success: Understanding How Anxiety Shapes Performance

In this session, we will explore the impact of anxiety on performance. We will begin by discussing research on math anxiety and the various ways it affects mathematical performance. From there, we will broaden the focus to examine how anxiety can influence not only ourselves but also those around us. Finally, we will learn strategies to manage anxiety and lead hands-on practices designed to help alleviate it. 

Presenter: Qiushan Liu

Survive Burnout & Thrive with Empathy

In this data driven session, we will explore research on generational empathy trends and empathy’s relationship to burnout. We will begin by defining the various manifestations of burnout and empathy. Participants will have an opportunity to map their own empathy and burnout profiles using validated measures. Next, we will discuss how Millennials experience some of the highest levels of burnout alongside the lowest levels of empathy. Working among a non-empathic generation poses unique challenges: low empathy in others can be hard to navigate and lacking empathy ourselves may contribute to our exhaustion, since most forms of empathy serve as a buffer against burnout. Empathic individuals tend to burn out less, enjoy greater social support and exhibit better mental and physical health. Finally, we will learn hands-on practices designed to strengthen the protective capacities of perspective taking and compassionate empathy. Attendees will leave equipped with evidence-based strategies to safeguard their well being and cultivate a more empathic work environment. 

Presenter: Alison Jane Martingano

Take a short break before our next breakouts begin.

Burned Haystack: Looking Forward

Join Jennie Young for a "working meeting"/"group brainstorm" about where Burned Haystack as a community and a social movement goes from here. Be a part of the think tank that decides which initiatives we should focus on next. Some ideas under consideration are: a network of in-person and/or virtual meetups; a "book launch" team who are interested in bringing the method, values and community to a public that's not yet engaged on social media; options other than Facebook for a group to convene. This is not an exhaustive list, and we are definitely open to more ideas.

Presenter: Jennie Young

What are the Limits, and Where are Your Middle Fingers?

In this session, we will consider some of the practical dimensions of endurance and meaning-making through individual and communal struggle, as well as through action. Over the course of the session, we will look at multiple examples from American culture indicating that if we think things are bad now, we’re probably right, but the good (?) news is that things seem to have always been bad. By shifting the questions away from counting how much beleaguerment we have each day, we might more thoughtfully consider how others have resisted, persisted, and found ways forward through troubling circumstances. In doing so, we might be able to more reasonably ground our own perspectives and take part in more impactful actions to improve our immediate, communal, and future circumstances. The session will include discussion of personal experience as well as accessible examples from music, comics, film and popular philosophy. In one sense, we might consider this discussion in the classic postmodern framework of questioning the limits of grand narratives and knowledge about our allegedly more-complex present. In another sense, we can think more practically about “limits” and how to equip ourselves and our students by rummaging around in our bellies, finding our middle fingers, and using them liberally.

Presenter: Zack Kruse

Lunch will be provided by UW-Green Bay. 

Emotional Management as a Survival Skill

Surviving challenging times isn’t necessarily about conquering every challenge. It’s about knowing what we can and cannot control and focusing our energy where it matters most. In stressful times, emotions can easily spiral when we try to change the unchangeable. By identifying the situations, reactions and choices within our control, we can steady ourselves, think more clearly and respond with intention rather than impulse. In this way, emotion management can be thought of as a survival skill, because it helps us preserve our well-being, protect relationships and find stability even when the world feels uncertain. 

Presenter: Ryan Martin

Creative Nonfiction as Self-Care

Can you write your way to sanity? The genre of creative nonfiction is a tool for telling the true story of your life, making meaning from your experiences, and discovering and deepening your voice. While creative nonfiction is sometimes dismissed as navel-gazing and otherwise self-indulgent, this session will explore how a deepened understanding of the self can be both an artistic achievement and an act of political resistance.

Presenter: Tara DaPra

Take a short break before our next breakouts begin.

Creating & Community: How to Live, Not Just Survive

There are several studies that show creating art (whether on your own or in a collective group) can benefit your wellbeing—also known as “social prescribing.” And, in a time when most people are just treading water to get by, it’s important to latch onto things that help us live—not just survive. By creating with or around a community, our overall health and wellbeing improve. We are able to process our thoughts and emotions through creating, while also building relationships with those around us.

Presenter: Rachel Sankey

Listening Session: Music of Resilience, Music of Transcendence

This session will explore the strong link between music and emotional resilience through stories and examples from an array of musicians representing multiple styles and perspectives. We’ll listen together to works by Olivier Messiaen, David Bowie and Nina Simone.

Presenter: Michelle McQuade Dewhirst

Take a short break before the conclusion to Common CAHSS.

Close out the day with a final full group session and some closing remarks.